Digital Commons Network^™

Do Sex Offender Registration And Notification Laws Affect Criminal Behavior?, J. J. Prescott, Jonah E. Rockoff

Articles

Sex offenders have become the targets of some of the most far-reaching and novel crime legislation in the U.S. Two key innovations in recent decades have been registration and notification laws which, respectively, require that convicted sex offenders provide valid contact information to law enforcement authorities, and that information about sex offenders be made public. Using the evolution of state law during the 1990s and 2000s, we study how registration and notification affect the frequency of reported sex offenses and the incidence of such offenses across victims. We find evidence that registration reduces the frequency of sex offenses by providing …

Legal Reasoning And Scientific Reasoning, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Articles

In my presentation for the 2010 Meador Lectures on Rationality, I chose to compare legal reasoning and scientific reasoning. Both law and science pride themselves on the rationality of their intellectual methods and believe that those methods are designed to analyze questions and reach the correct conclusions by means of reason, free from cognitive or emotional biases. Of course, both law and science often fall short of this ideal at all levels, from the decisions about individual legal cases or scientific studies to the acceptance of general theories. In many ways, the biases that mislead legal and scientific thinkers are …

Losing It, William I. Miller

Articles

You are in your sixties, even fifties, and you are walking by a shop window, or in some area in which a security monitor shows a scan of the line you are in. You sneak a look. You see someone in the space where you should be but you do not recognize the interloper. Then, after an unseemly lag of a second or two you are forced to remake your own acquaintance; it seems you no longer know yourself at first sight. The you behind your eyes believes you look like you did twenty years ago, and it assumes that …

The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And The Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

Recent empirical legal scholarship on the consumer bankruptcy system has uncovered a marked rise in the proportion of elder Americans filing for relief under the Bankruptcy Code. But these studies have not probed the reasons behind that rise, an omission this Article seeks to address. Professor John Pottow and colleagues recently assembled the new dataset of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), the largest national sample of consumer debtors in this country, which he uses to explore the sources of elder bankruptcy. The findings are both striking and ominous. While multiple factors, such as health problems and medical debts, contribute to …

The Inauthentic Claim, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

This Article takes a critical look at the persistence of legal doctrines that prohibit or limit property rights in litigation. The Article focuses on prohibitions on assignment and maintenance. Assignment of personal injury tort claims is prohibited throughout the United States, while the assignment of other claims, such as fraud and professional malpractice, is prohibited in a large number of states. Maintenance, in which a stranger provides something of value to a litigant in order to support or promote the litigation, is prohibited in varying degrees in the United States.

These doctrines might seem quite independent of each other at …

Guardianship For Persons With Mental Illness - A Legal And Appropriate Alternative?, Leslie Salzman

Articles

The article critiques the U.S. guardianship system for individuals with psychosocial disabilities, arguing that it often unnecessarily restricts their autonomy by removing their legal right to make decisions. It advocates for supported decision-making models as a less restrictive alternative, aligning with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The analysis emphasizes the importance of maximizing integration and participation in social, economic, and civic life, while highlighting the need for safeguards to ensure effective support without undue bureaucratic complexity.

An Exploration Of The Knowledge And Attitudes Towards Breastfeeding Among A Sample Of Chinese Mothers In Ireland, Qianling Zhou, Katherine Younger, John Kearney

Articles

Background: Psychological factors are important in influencing breastfeeding practices. This retrospective study explored knowledge and attitudes related to breastfeeding of Chinese mothers living in Ireland. Methods: A cross-sectional self-administrated survey written in Chinese was distributed to a convenience sample of 322 immigrant Chinese mothers mainly via Chinese supermarkets and Chinese language schools in Dublin, with the involvement of the snowball method to increase sample size. Maternal breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes were described, their associations with socio-demographic variables were explored by Chi-square analysis, and their independent associations with breastfeeding behaviours were estimated by binary logistic regression analyses. Results: In spite of …

Retribution And The Experience Of Punishment, Jonathan Masur, John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco

Articles

No abstract provided.

Mapping The Literature Of Health Education: 2006–2008, Amber T. Burtis, Mary K. Taylor

Articles

Objectives:

The study updates Schloman's 1997 study, “Mapping the Literature of Health Education.” The authors identify an updated list of core health education journals and determine the coverage of these journals by electronic indexes.

Methods:

Citations from four source journals for the years 2006 to 2008 were analyzed using the established methodology of the “Mapping the Literature of Allied Health Project.” The cited journals were divided into three zones of productivity by using Bradford's Law of Scattering.

Results:

There were 19,907 citations in 602 source articles. Journal articles were the most commonly cited format type. Of the 1,896 journal titles …

Application Of The Fractional Diffusion Equation For Predicting Market Behaviour, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Most Financial modelling system rely on an underlying hypothesis known as the Eficient Market Hypothesi (EMH) including the famous BlackScholes formula for placing an option. However, the EMH has a fundamental flaw: it is based on the assumption that economic processes are normally distributed and it has long been known that this is not the case. This fundamental assumption leads to a number of shortcomings associated with using the EMH to analyse financial data which includes failure to predict the future volatility of a market share value. This paper introduces a new financial risk assessment model based on Levy statistics …

Trick Or Treat: The Ethics Of Mediator Manipulation, Jim Coben, Lela P. Love

Articles

Much of what good mediators do can be characterized as “helpful interventions” that assist the parties towards legitimate goals such as a better understanding, a platform for developing options, and (where the parties choose) an agreement or settlement. However, all such “helpful interventions” are inevitably "manipulative," in the sense that the mediator is, often unilaterally, making “moves” with profound impact on the parties’ bargaining. To evaluate the ethics of any individual move, the authors propose asking two questions: 1) does the move further or help a legitimate party or process goal that advances party self-determination in decision-making; and 2) is …

Traveling Concepts: Substantive Equality On The Road, Susanne Baer

Articles

Ideas travel. Even legal concepts migrate on the globe. However, it is a contested issue whether migration is a good idea. We may enjoy traveling ourselves, but many people in the world of law are somewhat worried if we take legal baggage along. Some claim that legal baggage never arrives at its destination and challenge the very possibility of what some call a legal transplant. Others claim that we already live in transnational legal contexts, while still others claim that migration occurs, and that modifies each legal concept on the road in rather significant ways, which may render the project …

Welfare As Happiness, Jonathan Masur, John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Can Post-Catholic Ireland Learn From France?, Eamon Maher

Articles

Material reproduced by kind permission of Doctrine and Life.

False Dichotomies, Facts And Values, And The Snares Of Objectivism: Planning For Leisure From An Experiential Perspective?, Ross Neville

Articles

Despite the fact that the experiential perspective has had a profound impact on the way we view leisure behaviour, experiential matters have been renounced for being overtly subjective. As a corollary, experiential matters have been castigated for their inability to offer concrete criteria for leisure policy and the provisions of services. This paper argues that this dismissal of experiential matters is based on an overinflated dichotomy – the fact/value dichotomy – and that, by valorising objectivist approaches to managing leisure resources, experiential matters have become nothing more than a policy-making faux pas. The paper argues that while experiential matters bring …

Looking Beyond Full Relationship Recognition For Couples Regardless Of Sex: Abolition, Alternatives, And/Or Functionalism, Edward D. Stein

Articles

In the context of recent accomplishments in the quest for full marriage equality for same-sex couples, this article considers three proposals for reform to the law of adult domestic relations: (i) the abolition of the legal institution of marriage; (ii) the development of a broad “menu” of alternative forms of relationship recognition in addition to marriage; and (iii) the embracing of a functionalist approach to relationship recognition whereby relationships that share significant functional attributes with marriages are, in certain ways, given the same legal treatment as marriages. The article contends that advocates and theoreticians should strive for more than just …

The Empty Tomb: Post-Critical Legal Hermeneutics, Peter Goodrich

Articles

The article argues that the decline of critical legal studies (CLS) stems not only from external challenges like tenure wars but also from internal weaknesses, particularly an affective incapacity and failure of collective desire. To revitalize CLS, the article proposes a return to its original mission of social transformation, emphasizing the spiritual and ethical dimensions of legal understanding. It draws on hermeneutics and art history to explore how legal symbols and images shape power dynamics, advocating for a deeper engagement with the invisible, non-law forces that guide legal administration.

Rethinking Trust Law Reform: How Prudent Is Modern Prudent Investor Doctrine?, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

During the 1990s, modern portfolio theory provided the theoretical foundation for significant reforms in trust investment doctrine-reforms that freed trustees from a legal regime in which they faced potential liability for making "speculative" investments. The reforms enabled trustees to pursue investment policies that protected beneficiaries against inflation risk. But the reforms worked too well; they encouraged trustees to invest a higher percentage of trust assets in equities just in time for a decade that has seen two precipitous stock market declines. Although no sensible investment strategy would have avoided losses during these periods of market turmoil, the doctrinal reforms endorsed …

Arís Is Arís Eile: Scéalta Mar Ais Teanga Sa Naíonra, Maire Mhic Mhathuna

Articles

Achoimre Déantar cur síos san alt seo ar ról na scéalta agus na leabhar mar áis fhoghlamtha teanga is scéalaíochta sa naíonra Gaelach. Déantar anailís ar an teoiric a bhaineann le forbairt na teanga is na scéalaíochta féin sa chéad is sa dara teanga. Deineadh cluastaifeadadh ar na seisiúin scéalaíochta i naíonra Gaelach amháin gach coicís ar feadh sé mhí. Scagadh na hathscríbhinní chun féachaint cén modh scéalaíochta a bhí in úsáid ag na stiúrthóirí is cén dul chun cinn a bhí á dhéanamh ag na páistí. Tugtar cuntas anseo ar na straitéisí scéalaíochta a bhí in úsáid ag na …

Citizenship Perception Strain In Cases Of Crime And War: On Law And Intuition, Mary De Ming Fan

Articles

The jurisprudence on crime and war has repeatedly indicated that citizenship matters in determining the scope and applicability of constitutional protections. Just how citizenship matters and what vision of the citizen controls have been murky, however. A rich literature has developed deploring how the nation and the jurisprudence have appeared to slip beneath the baseline of protections when faced with formal citizens who challenge our popular notions about what citizens look like, feel like, and do. What warrants further examination is why this may be so. Understanding the processes that may blur the doctrine and lead to slippage in citizenship …

Sensitivity Of Wtp Estimates To Definition Of 'Yes': Reinterpreting Expressed Response Intensity, Mimako Kobayashi, Kimberly Rollins, M. D. R. Evans

Articles

Willingness to pay (WTP) estimation typically involves some strategy for mapping nondichotomous contingent valuation (CV) responses onto a dichotomous yes/no dependent variable. We propose a new approach to selecting which responses qualify as ‘yes.’ We apply the proposed method to polychotomous CV data for preventative land management programs in the Great Basin. We also estimate WTP using other methods of response recoding found in the literature. By contrasting the results under different approaches, we demonstrate how and why WTP point estimates vary across recoding methods and discuss the comparative advantages of our more generalized recoding approach that is based on …

Reseacher As Whistleblower: The Ethical Challenges Posed By Sensitive Research, Tom Clonan

Articles

This paper will explore the complex ethical issues raised when ‘non traditional’ insider research is conducted in sensitive and secretive workplace settings. The paper will outline the experiences of the author between 1996 and 2000 - as a Captain in the Irish Army - when he conducted PhD research into the status and roles assigned female personnel in the Irish military. This research uncovered evidence of the widespread bullying, harassment, sexual harassment and sexual assault of female soldiers, sailors and air crew in the Irish military. The paper will address a number of ethical issues as they apply to the …

The Benefits Of Holidaying For Children Experiencing Social Exclusion: Recent Irish Evidence, Bernadette Quinn, Jane Stacey

Articles

There is a general assumption in contemporary society that holidaying is beneficial in many ways. Yet, even in affluent societies, access to holidaying opportunities continues to be constrained by a variety of factors relating to inter alia income, gender, health and race. This is problematic because it means that sizeable minorities within advanced societies are being denied the benefits that researchers have attributed to the practice of holidaying. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in problematising the exclusionist nature of holidaying with researchers arguing that a lack of holiday opportunities may compound social deprivation, reinforce social problems and heighten …

Regenerating The Quays In Salford: An Analysis Of Visitor Perception, Behaviour And Experience, Ruth Craggs, Peter Schofield

Articles

Tourism can generate substantial benefits to destination communities and has featured extensively in urban regeneration policy, but whilst there is now an extensive literature covering urban tourism and dockland regeneration, visitor perceptions of urban waterfront destinations and their on-site behaviour and experience remain largely unexplored. The paper focuses on the Quays in Salford, the city’s former docklands, which has been regenerated and repositioned as its flagship tourism product. It reports the findings from a questionnaire survey of visitors’ perceptions, behaviour and experience of the Quays. A principal components analysis revealed that four product performance dimensions: ‘primary attractions’, ‘secondary attractions’, ‘access’ …

Why I Will Never Be A Keynesian, Richard A. Epstein

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No abstract provided.

Eastphalia As The Perfection Of Westphalia, Tom Ginsburg

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No abstract provided.

The Right To Abandon, Lior Strahilevitz

Articles

The common law prohibits the abandonment of real property. Perhaps it is surprising, therefore, that the following are true: (1) the common law generally permits the abandonment of chattel property, (2) the common law promotes the transfer of real property via adverse possession, and (3) the civil law is widely believed to permit the abandonment of real property. Because the literature on abandonment is disappointingly sparse, these three peculiarities have escaped sustained scholarly analysis and criticism. This Article aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the law of abandonment. After engaging in such an analysis, this Article finds that the …

Pregnant Man: Amazon Or Etana?, Mary Anne Case, Noa Ben-Asher, Elizabeth Emens, Darren Rosenblum

Articles

No abstract provided.

Pseudonymous Litigation, Lior Strahilevitz

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Rights Of Migrants: An Optimal Contract Framework, Adam B. Cox, Eric A. Posner

Articles

Why do migrants enjoy some of the rights associated with citizenship? Existing accounts typically answer this question in terms of obligation-of a duty on the part of states to confer citizenship. Moreover, scholars tend to lump together the rights conventionally associated with citizenship when they answer this question. In contrast, this Article disaggregates the rights associated with citizenship, asks what both states and migrants want, and inquires into how the suite of rights associated with citizenship might advance those interests. States want to encourage migrants to enter their territory and to make country-specific investments, but states also have an interest …